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Foxconn A7DA-S 790GX Review

Testing:

For the testing phase of the Foxconn A7DA-S it will be broken down into two parts. First, the scientific tests will be run only using the discrete video card (HD 4850). Then for the video tests they will be run using a discrete card with the CPU at stock and overclocked. After that there will be a set of test run on the integrated graphics with and without the Sideport Memory enabled. There are different settings used for the discrete and integrated graphics tests in each section, so be aware when looking at the results. I am going to compare the Foxconn A7DA-S to the ASUS M3N78 Pro, which uses the latest NVIDIA IGP chipset, the GeForce 8300. For all of the tests, except the overclocking results, all hardware will be run at stock speeds, timings, and voltages so that there will be no variables that might interfere with the results.

Overclocking:

Overclocking the Foxconn A7DA-S was a breeze with the Fox Central Control Unit. Having everything in one place like this made it easy resetting the values and trying it again. Little by little, I raised the CPU speed until I hit a wall. Since most Phenoms do not like much on the CPU speeds, once I hit that wall at 205MHz I used the unlocked multiplier feature of the Black Box Edition chip to squeeze more power out of the processor. I was able to raise the multi to 15x and all of this on a 1.45 voltage for the CPU. This gave me an overclock of 3.075GHz, which is the best overclock I have reached on this Phenom X4 9850 to date on any platform.